Salt Lake City

My husband and I, along with a few close friends, decided to go to Salt Lake City to have a white Christmas and ski our hearts out, and we were not disappointed.

Not everyone in our group was super keen on skiing so we chose to rent a house downtown through Air BnB (near 9th and 9th) so that the non-skiers would be close to things to do during the day. It ended up being a great decision, each day we could take our pick of the mountains based on the conditions & in the evening we had all of Salt Lake City’s lovely restaurants & bars to choose from (without the hefty on mountain price tags). It also meant that we could have a home cooked meal on Christmas Day.

Skiing
Over the course of the week we skied at Canyons, Solitude and Brighton. We had a mix of snowboarders and skiers so Alta was out of the question. We also had a good spread of skill levels in our group. By far, everyone’s favourite mountain of the trip was Brighton.

Canyons, (which was linked to Park City this year, creating the largest resort in the US), was a a bit of a let down. To begin with, the lift tickets were significantly more expensive when compared with other mountains in the area (a lift ticket for Park City/Canyons costs $129, a lift ticket for Solitude, Brighton, Alta or Snowbird costs $75-90 per day). It wasn’t that it was Canyons was a bad resort, I had a lot of great runs & a lot of fun, it’s just it wasn’t any better than the other mountains in the area & for that price that’s being charged, I’d expect it to be better.

Even though Brighton and Solitude were smaller, quieter resorts we still had heaps fun finding new runs each day. Both mountains had a more friendly local vibe, and I loved that there was no music pumping through loud speakers. I really do love the quieter resorts where the only noise is your skies on the snow. We spent two days at both Brighton & Solitude. I didn’t get tired or bored of the terrain & was always finding new runs or places to explore. In the end we had a little more fun on the runs at Brighton.

Foodwise, Solitude had the best on mountain lunch. I went to the Himalayan Hut near the Powderhorn and Moonbeam lifts for lunch both times I was at Solitude. The meals were warm and comforting and just what i needed to keep me going all afternoon. Add to that the reasonable prices (for on mountain food). I had the curry entree plate for $12, which came with rice, Naan and three types of curry (all delicious). The Shepards pie also looked pretty delicious.

Salt Lake City Food & Coffee
Off the mountain I was pleasantly surprised to find a heap of great coffee shops, restaurants and bars. Each morning I’d normally stop in at a coffee shop on the way to the ski slopes to pick up a coffee & maybe a treat. The coffee at Hub & Spoke Diner & Finca was pretty good but all in all, The Rose Establishment was easily my favourite cafe in Salt Lake City. They made lovely coffee and had a great selection of baked goods and small brunch items on the menu (even an avocado smash!).

Restaurants wise, we ate at both Pago & Finca. Pago is more ‘modern American’ cuisine & Finca more Spanish tapas. We enjoyed both & I would happily go back to either.

Through one of the server’s at Finca, we found out about a little restaurant called Pizzeria 712 about 45mins outside of Salt Lake City in a town called Orem. We drove out there on our rest day to check it out for lunch & I’m glad we did. The pizza’s were delicious, thin crusted, fresh, tasty toppings. They even make their own ricotta in house there, which was easily the best ricotta I’ve ever had on a pizza.

My only disappointment was that were weren’t able to eat at Forage. I’d read some pretty good things about then but alas there was 6 of us & they couldn’t take bookings larger than 5. Next time though…